Boys' basketball: Hot shooting sinks Leavenworth

Tuesday

Feb 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 12, 2013 at 11:35 PM

Immaculata holds off Pleasant Ridge; Lansing cruises past Basehor

Brent Lager

Trey Bales couldn’t miss Tuesday.The Olathe Northwest guard buried 10 3-pointers and finished with 41 points. On the other end of the court, the Leavenworth boys’ basketball team scored 52 — as a team.On the back of Bales’ lights-out shooting, the Ravens defeated the Pioneers 68-52.“We weren’t supposed to leave him,” LV coach Larry Hogan said about defending Bales. “Everyone that was on him was supposed to stay with him the entire time. Obviously, we did not.”The game started great for Leavenworth, the Pioneers opening a 10-0 gap in the first four minutes. But once Northwest found its range, the shots came fast and furious.At the end of the first quarter, LV held a 13-8 lead. That flipped in the second, when the Ravens outscored the hosts 21-6 — thanks to six 3-pointers — for a 27-19 halftime advantage.The Northwest bombardment continued into the third, mainly from Bales, who posted 21 points in the quarter alone.The Pioneers did begin to find success inside however. Several layups enabled LV to keep the deficit at single digits until the end of the third, where it sat at 48-37 Ravens.But the visitor’s offensive firepower was too much for Leavenworth to keep up, leading to the 16-point result.“We failed to execute against their 1-3-1 half court trap,” Hogan said. “Poor passing, poor execution and it took it’s toll on us until we finally figured it out.”Shane Chikerema finished with 13 points to lead LV while Jeff George had 12. Grant Lang and Cameron Wiggins each posted nine a piece.The Pioneers, 6-11, will host Shawnee Mission Northwest Friday at 7 p.m.

Imac holds off late PR shootingOver the years, a rivalry is going to have thrillers, as well as its share of snoozers.Tuesday’s 37-28 Immaculata win over Pleasant Ridge had some of both.In the first half, PR was determined to slow the game down until it resembled more of a soccer match than a basketball game.With the score close and still in single digits, PR limited Imac’s possessions by passing it back and forth over and over, on some possessions doing it for over a minute before going into a traditional half-court set.“When we play fast, we make mistakes,” PR coach Sean Murphy said. “It’s as simple as that.”“It was a game of cat and mouse,” Imac coach Mike Connelly said. “They wanted to tempt us into going man-to-man, but we wanted to stay in zone. It was smart coaching on their part.”In the second half, after Imac had build a multiple-possession lead, the cat-and-mouse game shifted, and it was the Raiders who played keep away to milk the clock.Despite the coaches’ best efforts, the game finally got interesting late when PR’s shooters started making 3-pointers and their defense forced some turnovers.The hot shooting cut Imac’s lead to 22-16 with two minutes left, but from there, Imac took care of the ball, made free throws after PR’s fouling, and slowly tightened the vice on their rival.Sean Murray led the way for the Raiders with 14 points. Adam Patterson put in 10 for Pleasant Ridge.For Immaculata, now 6-11, the win snaps a five-game losing streak as the Raiders enter the final three games of the regular season schedule. They play McLouth Friday at 7:30 p.m.For Pleasant Ridge, the loss puts the boys at 1-15. But Murphy came away with a positive outlook.“This is the happiest I’ve been with them in a while,” he said. “We competed, and that’s always nice.”The Rams host Atchison County Friday for senior night. Tip is at 7:30 p.m. — Ian Stanford

Lions cruise past BobcatsWith the Lions basketball team needing a big play, Lansing’s Zach Jackson looked down the barrel of the Basehor defense.The host Bobcats had strung together seven straight points, leaving the Lions searching for an answer. Enter Jackson, who’s fingertips delivered a back breaking 3-pointer just in the nick of time.The shot got the Lions rolling and was key to the 58-41 road conference victory.“It was an important win,” Lansing coach Rod Briggs said. “Beating Basehor no matter what their team is doing this year is always going be a tough win.”Another huge part of the game was Lansing’s Clay Young. Young had a breakout performance Tuesday with a season and career high 21 points.“Clay had a great game today,” Briggs said. “He was able to score inside and that helped us a ton.”Joe Schneider added 13 points.Lansing, 16-1, on the season will play at Mill Valley at 7 p.m. Friday.— James Howey

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